Michigan - ALL CITIES
In 1991, Kim Mitchell was a typical Southern mama on a tight budget. She went to a small consignment sale in someone’s basement and while she didn’t find anything in her daughter’s size, she did come home with the idea to host a sale of her own. Fast forward twenty-five years and Kim is the leader of four of Metro Atlanta’s favorite seasonal consignment sales, including her All 4 Kids Woodstock sale, one of ConsignmentMommies.com 2016 National Top 10 Consignment Sales.
With a keen eye for organization and an army of family members chipping in, Kim’s sales have grown from a single location with 25 consignors to four locations with over 2,000 total sellers. When asked about her favorite aspect of being a sale owner, Kim shared two; “The most enjoyable aspect of owning All 4 Kids is two fold. #1 Seeing our All 4 Kids ‘family’ twice a year. Having a consignment sale for 25 years means we are seeing the same mamas we met in 1991, now shopping for their grandkids!, and #2 the joy of working with my immediate family members. My kids grew up with All 4 Kids and started working at the sales from a very young age (see picture). They are now grown and are an integral part of running All 4 Kids. Daughter Jennifer is the Volunteer Coordinator, daughter Jessica is Cashier Manager. Son Josh is Marketing Director, Son-in-love Chris has been the Operations Manager (although they are in Africa full time this year). My husband Ken can be found pitching in on Saturdays helping to drive trucks and run errands when he is able.”
Kim & family at her sale in 1994
All 4 Kids shoppers love how organized the sale is. “There’s a place for everything and everything in its place,” Kim says. She encourages other sale owners to make sure they have enough volunteers or paid help to keep the sale well-organized and easy to shop. This sale has always been innovative, from being the first in the area to offer a New Moms Pre-Sale to using barcoded tags and easy online registration. Another great part of this amazing sale is their check-out line. Kim’s goal is to always keep the wait time to less than 30 minutes. With thousands of shoppers, she has it down to a science. A little OCD never hurts when organizing one of the top 10 sales in the nation.
Hot sellers at All 4 Kids, like at many sales, are baby equipment and large toys. In addition, shoppers love the high quality, great selection and low prices for their children’s clothing.
All 4 Kids Top 3 Tips
- Sell clothing items in sets through size 4, then sell separate pieces in size 5 and older.
- Never place a stained piece in an outfit as the whole outfit will be pulled for stains and you won’t make any money.
- Help in advertising the sale. The more friends you tell about the sale, the more money you will make.
With her vast experience, we asked Kim what seemed to be the biggest challenge for first-time consignors. It’s pricing with sentiment, which usually results in overpricing. Kim also contends that it may take a few seasons to find that “sweet spot” for pricing your brands but to not give up!
Are you interested in starting your own consignment sale? Kim Mitchell recommends researching your demographics and space availability. If it doesn’t work out in one area, if you’re in the red after four sales, don’t be afraid to close up and start somewhere else.
The Mitchells hope All 4 Kids will continue to be a blessing to families in the Atlanta area. They plan to keep growing, even expanding their local community involvement to offer mom blogs and forums to help moms better reach out to one another. All 4 kids doesn’t just bless families in Georgia! As Kim says, “The Lord has blessed All 4 Kids and we want to use that to be a blessing to others, both in our local community and around the world. All 4 Kids is partnered with retouch.is Retouch helps to make a difference to the less fortunate through feeding programs, free schooling and counseling in Kenya. Retouch was started by my daughter Jennifer (our volunteer co-ordinator) and son-in-love, Chris (our operations manager).”